Author: Luigi Guarino

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Itadakimasu!

Just before digging in, whether it be a seven-course dinner or a sample at a supermarket, it’s polite to say “itadakimasu” (I will receive).

In Japan that is. But does it really just mean “I will receive”? According to my source on all things Japanese a fuller rendering would in fact be:

Thank you to everything and everyone involved in providing this food to me — the sun and the earth and the water for making it possible, the plants and animals that grew to be the food, the farmer who grew them and the person who took it to market and the person who sold it in the market and the person who bought it and the person who prepared the food and the person who laid the table, and everyone who enabled these people to play their part.

Does any other culture heap praise on the whole food system in this way at every snack and meal?

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Manihot esculenta, I presume?

A blog post from Kew’s archivists on the Zambesi Expedition of 1858-1864 led me to Dr Livingstone’s papers, among which I stumbled on this wonderful letter to Joseph D. Hooker:

Hadley Green Barnet 11th July 1857

My Dear Dr Hooker

I beg to return you my hearty thanks for your note and the trouble you have been at in deciphering the mere fragments submitted to you. Your willingness to examine anything botanical will certainly make me more anxious to secure something for you in Africa more worthy of your time. We get meal of a kind of millet in Londa which I think is the lesser bird seed. It grows on a high stalk in this way. The seeds are small & a {slight tinge} of slate colour on the outer scale. What is the botanical name for it? It is so extensively cultiv-{ated} in Africa I think you must know. The Holcus Sorghum is the most general article in use. We speak of it as Caffre corn. Is that correct?

There are two kinds of Manioc. One sweet the other bitter & poisonous they are both mentioned in a work by Daniel on the West Coast but I have not that work nearer at hand than Linyanti so I beg to trouble you to tell me the proper names of the two species of Manioc, the Jatropha Manihot and –

As I am boring with questions. Have you the proper names for the melons which form such an important article of support on the Kalahari Desert and of one there which has the flavour of an apple. What is the name of the Palm which when the leaves are broken off gives the idea of it being triangular The ends of the leaf stalks stick on and give it the appearance referred to. A fruit mentioned at the end of Bowdich’s work with by the name Masuka was found by me in very large quantities. It is good. As it seems know can I have the proper name. Now please just attend or not to these questions as it is convenient – though I send them it is not because I think I have any claim on your time or attention – I am only putting you in the way of doing an act of charity to yours &c David Livingstone

Now, how to find the reply?

And with that, dear reader, I take my leave of you for about three weeks, which I will spend not too far, relatively speaking, from where Stanley found Livingstone. In fact, I should already be there…

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Bringing back the Iraqi marshes

We blogged over a year ago about the re-flooding of the Iraqi marshes, but fairly briefly, and it’s great to see a long piece about this restoration process in Der Spiegel today. The slideshow which accompanies the article provides the best visual summary I’ve seen of what happened to the marshes — and their inhabitants, with their crops and livestock. I’ve put the “before” and “after” shots side-by-side below:

The Iraqi marshes before and after they were drained by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Apart from its inherent interest, the Der Spiegel article also gives me the excuse to mention that a detailed map of the world’s river systems has just been made available, by Bernhard Lehner at McGill University in Montréal, Canada. Is anyone keeping track of the proliferation of such global geographic dataset? Google? ESRI? The CGIAR’s Spatial Information Conundrum? Anyone?